In easily the closest match of the year, the No. 44 Gophers edged the No. 35 Cardinals, 4-3, tonight at Baseline Tennis Center. After Minnesota claimed the doubles point, senior Brendan Ruddock and freshman Ruben Weber’s endurance proved powerful as each preserved through deficits to add points to the team score.

Minnesota came out firing and dominated the doubles competition despite unfamiliar pairings. Jack Hamburg and Brendan Ruddock finished their match first, handling Sebastian Stiefelmeyer and Van Damrongsri to an 8-4 finish. Leandro Toledo and Eric Frueh teamed up at the No. 3 spot and tallied the win to capture the point for Minnesota. The duo trounced Luis Elizondo and Jeffrey Brown by an 8-6 score.

Rok Bonin (2) continued the momentum for the Gophers in the singles round, finishing first with a 6-0, 6-3 victory over Albert Wagner. He would be the only player to emerge victorious without a tiebreaker. Louisville would win the next two games to bring the team score to a 2-2 tie. Hamburg and Toledo saw defeated at No. 4 and No. 1, respectively.

Minnesota took the lead again when Ruben Weber (6) outlasted Damrongsri. After losing the first set 2-6, Weber bounced back to attack. He took the second set 6-2 to force a third. Once again, Weber pushed through, coming back from a three-game deficit, to claim the 7-5 victory.

With the match tied at 3-3, it all came down to the No. 5 singles match-up of Minnesota’s Ruddock and Louisville’s Alex Gornet. The two kept it extremely close throughout. Gornet took the first set by way of a tiebreak. The next set was owned by Ruddock when he came back from a deficit to win 7-5. Ruddock and Gornet traded sets up to a 5-5 tie score in the third before Ruddock ran away to win the final games.

With the win, Minnesota improves to 2-4 on the season. Louisville drops to 4-5 overall.